See you in Tokyo Bay - Apbarog(A) vs Walker(J) DBB-B Scen28

[apbarog]

Great point BBfanboy. Thanks! I may even do some resizing with those groups before the carrier leaves. Nothing bigger than 27, I think. Seems fair. I do have a good number of those planes in the pool, and the Brit units are tiny.

[apbarog]

10 Jul 42

Some unloading continues at Lunga and Rennel Island. Most transports are now at Luganville unloading for future reloading. Some troops are being flown into Lunga to support ship unloading. Others are loading on ships or already on the way. Brit carriers split off and head for Sydney. US carriers head for Noumea. No sign of enemy activity in the Solomons, except for another fighter sweep of Tulagi.

Soerbaja falls. So does Bandjermasin on Borneo, and Padang on Sumatra.

Many enemy carriers are spotted at Singapore.

Enemy ships are now at Diamond Harbour and also nearby on the Burma coast. These aren't warships. Don't know what is being loaded or unloaded. My subs haven't had any luck here.

[apbarog]

11 Jul 42

I'd been waiting for some response to my Solomon's invasions, and today I finally got a limited response. Betty's, Kate's, and Val's, all escorted by Zero's, hit Tulagi's port and ships unloading at Lunga. I have no CAP since all of my bases are still 0 airfields (but they are working furiously on that). I had 2 small TK's sitting in Tulagi's port, waiting to unload. They are sunk. 3 xAK's unloading supply at Lunga are sunk. One xAP unloading at Lunga is damaged but will survive current damage levels.

When I finish off bringing troops and supply, next time, my carriers will escort. US carriers approach Noumea for fuel and planes.

A possible ominous spotting: an enemy transport task force is seen 10 hexes southeast of Truk. Could be coming or going to the Nauru Island area, or could be headed south to the Solomon's or the Ndeni area.

At Diamond Harbour, enemy task forces remain. Still can't tell what they are doing. Other task force(s) at Cox Bazar. Intentions not known. My sub there took a shot and missed. Doing recon here next turn.

In China, the limited enemy offensive continues west of Canton. I'll be forming a line north of the offensive, behind a river, soon. I'll eventually lose the 2 Chinese coastal bases, but I'm still defending them somewhat.

[apbarog]

12 Jul 42

Enemy sub activity around Guadalcanal, but 3 attacks fail with torpedo missing 2 destroyers and cruiser Louisville.

32 Nell's bomb Tulagi's port and hit nothing. The damaged AV had left. Port and airfield construction continues here, and at Lunga and Rennel Island.

Some Kate's fly at long range to Rennel Island and hit an unloading xAK, sinking it, and damaging a small escort. No more troops or supplies until I have some CAP here.

US carriers refuel and take planes at Noumea. They will wait here until I reload troops and supplies for the Solomons. I will bring in ships for one port at a time to simplify my CAP requirements.

I don't know what is going on at Diamond Harbour and Cox Bazaar. There are multiple enemy task forces at both. There are now 6 units spotted at Cox Bazaar, but the number at Diamond Harbour hasn't changed.

Maybe the enemy will try a push up the coast of Burma after all. I still have a Brit infantry division in reserve inland, and in Strat mode.

[apbarog]

13 Jul 42

The Solomons:

I-7 sinks AM Whippoorwill as it leaves Rennell Island. The small ship was damaged earlier at Tulagi.

At Tulagi, 5 enemy cruisers and 5 destroyers bombard. Results are weak. Some US troops are disrupted. Some fuel and supply is lost. The 11 port hits are repaired immediately and construction continues. The hex is mined, but no mine hits are detected.

Most ships at Luganville have now unloaded. All of the troops are unloaded and some ships with supply are still loaded. I begin loading ships with many fragmented units for Lunga and Tassafronga. All will unload at Lunga with carrier support. 7 unit fragments go to Lunga and 4 others go to Tassafronga, eventually.

US carriers leave Noumea and head north to escort the ships to Lunga. I think that all TBD's have been replaced with TBF's. 2 fighters units are at about half-strength with F4F-4's. Pool is emptied.

One damaged xAP is just getting to Luganville this turn. Fires shot up from the teens to the fifties. Hoping that the port saves the ship. Port size is just 3.

Java:

With Soerbaja conquered, the enemy starts to move on Batavia. It looks like it will bypass my mountain stronghold near Batavia. I'm stockpiling supply on the mountain and will hold until relieved. Hold until relieved.

An enemy task force was spotted southwest of Java, possibly with a battleship in it. Could be part of KB coming down from India. or a task force going to Cocos, or a raiding task force. Who knows. Doesn't matter. I have no ships in the area.

India:

Still multiple task forces at Diamond Harbour. Recon shows 2 fewer units there than yesterday. The enemy is loading up troops! I think that this is the correct move for my opponent. Those 5 divisions and many other units weren't accomplishing anything there. I did get intel of an armor unit planning an attack on Calcutta. This isn't new. What is new is that the intel was for a fragment of the unit. That tells me that the unit is loading at Diamond Harbour now. (There are no armor units at Calcutta.) I also suspect that troops are flying out of Diamond Harbour. It will be interesting to see how the evacuation is executed. If everything moves to Diamond Harbour together, I can move into Diamond Harbour faster than the troops can be evacuated, and Diamond Harbour does not have the huge defensive modifier that Calcutta's city terrain provides.

I decided to go with an all-out anti-naval air attack this turn, but found most of my fighter units out of transfer range to Calcutta. Most were on Ceylon. I'm moving everything closer this turn and may strike next turn. With over 100 fighters at Diamond Harbour, it will be very ugly, just like the last attempts, but I have to try to sink ships loading men. Last few times, I did as many fighter sweeps as I could, and lightly escorted the bombers. Many fighters died each try. When the sweeps went first, most bombers did get through. When the sweeps didn't, many bombers died. I'm considering not sweeping and just putting lots and lots of fighters on escort. Maybe that will help a little. Sweeping with units no bigger than 25 planes against over 100 fighers on CAP is just futile for the first few sweeping units.

[apbarog]

14 Jul 42

India

I plot an all-out effort for an air attack on Diamond Harbour. I plot no sweeps. I have torpedo naval bombers attacking at 6k with escorts. I have other naval bombers including divebombers attacking at 10k with escorts. I have P-39's attacking at 100 feet. I have many bombers, including heavies, hitting the airfield at 11k. All missions have escorts, but none have enough to deal with over 100 enemy fighters. I just hope that the CAP gets worn down and some bombers get through. My main goal is the enemy ships loading troops at Diamond Harbour.

Still enemy out in the middle of the Indian Ocean, lurking.

A small transport task force is spotted headed to Port Blair. I had intel of engineers heading there. This fits.


Solomons

US carriers move north from Noumea to support a follow-up landing at Lunga. Lots of enemy shipping at Rabaul, and now there's a task force at Munda. I believe this to be a landing force, as there weren't any troops there recently.


Java

The enemy has been slowly conquering Java. Today the Dutch make a small bombing attack on some tanks nearing Batavia. The interesting thing today in Java, and why I posted the picture, is that carriers are spotted at Denpassar. I am pretty sure that these ships came from west of Java, probably from India. I think there are still carriers lurking in the Indian Ocean, but it may not be KB anymore. I think that these Java carriers are just transiting, will probably refuel, and then head to the Solomons.

[apbarog]

15 Jul 42

Near Java, a task force is seen north of the island, heading toward Singapore. May or may not be the carriers spotted last turn at Bali.

At Diamond Harbour, most of the enemy ships left. One xAK remained, and it was sunk by US Navy divebombers. The rest of the shipping is spotted near Cox Bazar. Most of my bombers targeting the airfield flew, while only those divebombers flew the naval mission. Losses were heavy but not disasterous. The B-17's acted as a decent fighter sweep, particularly since the enemy fighters were all Oscar's. 94 Oscar's were on CAP at the beginning of the raids. Airfield damage is shown to be 20 now.

Losses were:
11 P39's
6 P40E's
4 LB30's
4 SB III's
3 B-17's

10 Oscar's

I continue to target the airfield this turn, showing only about 20 fighters there now. Naval attack bombers keep their setting in case ships return.

In the Solomon's, an enemy task force is approaching the Shortlands/Buna area from Truk. It may also go to Munda. US carriers move north, stopping 5 hexes southeast of Munda. Bombers are set at range 7 with fighters only able to escort range 6. This is a risk but one I must take. My carriers also CAP transports inbound to Lunga. They won't arrive this turn but next. Others arrive on following turns.

The xAP that was on fire made it to Luganville and then sank.


In China, west of Canton, the Japanese cut off the 2 remaining coastal bases held by the Chinese. Bombing occurs in a couple of places. One is a Chinese corp in clear terrain. 2 squadrons of Chinese fighters move from Ledo to Nanning to LR CAP this hex this turn. I haven't been able to catch Japanese bombers often, but here's a chance. If they return.

[apbarog]

16 Jul 42

Lots of action in the Solomons.

First, US sub Grouper gets a torpedo hit on AK Sagami Maru near Green Island. A nice rare success. There were troops on the ship. Nice to hit a true AK.

Then the bad. I-171 gets a torpedo hit on CV Wasp. Fortunately just one hit. More on the damage later.

In the morning air phase, US carriers are 5 hexes from Munda, but 7 hexes from Shortlands. I anticipated the possible problem of strikes going to Shortlands with no escort, since the F4F-4's range is just 6. This happened in a big way, and it was some good news and lots of bad news.

But before that, 27 Val's escorted by 30 Zero's strike the US carriers. 89 F4F-4's are on CAP. The Zero's do a good job tying up the more numerous F4F's, and all Val's drop their bombs. 8 bombs hit CV Wasp, already damaged by the sub torpedo. The good news is that the Val's are at long range, and all bombs are 60kg bombs. Just a couple of them do real damage. Cruiser Pensacola takes a minor bomb hit also.

Then a big strike hits Tulagi's port, again. 33 Nell's and 35 Betty's are escorted by 27 Zero's. Damage is almost nothing. I'm fortunate that they weren't on naval strike.

The US replies with 54 SBD's flying to Shortlands, unescorted. 47 Zero's are on CAP. One bomb hit on an AMC that was loaded with men, and another bomb hit on a patrol boat. Most of the SBD's do not return.

There is still an enemy task force at Munda, and a big US strike hits. 54 SBD's and 45 TBF's escorted by 72 F4F-4's strike, and run into 19 Zero's on LR CAP. 3 xAK's are sunk, and destroyer Mikazuki is badly damaged. US losses are light.

Then another SBD strike goes to Shortlands. No bomb hits, and practically all 18 SBD's are shot down.

Then 8 TBF's go to Shortlands. All are shot down.

Then 62 SBD's and 14 TBF's go to Shortlands. A loaded AMC takes a bomb hit, as does 2 patrol boats. A DMS is sunk. Most SBD's are shot down. All TBF's are shot down.

Then another Munda strike. 32 SBD's and 15 TBF's, with 58 F4F-4's escort. A TB is sunk, another is damaged, and destroyer Mikazuki takes 2 more bomb hits and is badly damaged and burning.

In summary, I did hit a few ships, but not enough to justify the aircraft losses. Pilot losses were thankfully lighter, but aircraft is the Allies achilles heel. I have no F4F-4's in the pool, and the SBD pool is only about 40. I need to be more defensive with the carriers. I can't waste my airpower on non-carrier battles.

Losses were:

73 SBD's
21 TBF's
14 F4F-4's

21 Zero's
10 Val's

The US carriers move a bit southeast and concentrate on LR capping ships arriving at Lunga. Wasp heads south for repairs. A Brit carrier will take Wasp's place in the near future. After I've landed a day or two's troops and supplies at Lunga, I'll retire south for awhile. Hopefully my moves will keep the enemy cautious for awhile.

My priority is to build and build and build. I have what I need to hold what I've taken, if I can build it up. The enemy has been concentrating bombing on Tulagi, since it does have a working port, which is great for me. The port's damage has been fixed daily, and my big base will be at Lunga, not Tulagi. Lunga will get to port and airfield size 1 in the next day or two. CAP will then be possible.

So, lots of activity, and lots more to come, as both sides ship in men and material. Just a question, to me, of when KB shows up.

[apbarog]

I forgot to post Wasp's damage:

SYS 21
FLOT 27/8
ENG 7/0
FIRE 1

So not too bad. Let's just avoid the subs and get to port.

[jwolf]

Hope that fire goes out. If so the Wasp should be OK.

[jmalter]

Wasp is the 'poor relation' of the USN CV fleet, w/ only a 76-plane capacity. When my current op in the southern Solomons is complete, I'll off-load her USN airgroups (1x36F, 2x18DB) to a base, to serve as training groups. After her 10/42 refit, Wasp will get USMC groups, 3x18F & 1x18DB, & she'll be used for point-defense CAP & ASW.

[apbarog]

Jmalter, do I have to have the old air units on Wasp for the new USMC groups to appear, or can I just take them now?


17 Jul 42

More action.

In the Indian theater, US sub Seadragon takes a shot at an ACM just outside of Port Blair, and misses. Pretty clear that there will be mines at Port Blair.

I had moved some naval bombers to Dacca and Chittagong, hoping to hit some shipping spotted at Akyab. First, 11 SB2U's launch unescorted from Dacca and run into 7 Tojo's (the small experimental unit) over Akyab. Most bombers are destroyed, but one big bomb hit is seen on xAK Himalaya Maru. No troops were loaded on it.

The next attack there was 20 P-39's attacking at 100 feet. I have these guys trained up in low naval and strafing attacks. Escort was 24 P-40E's, and the opposition is just 3 Tojo's. One Tojo is shot down. One P-39 is lost to flak. 2 ships are targeted repeatedly. An xAKL is peppered with cannon and takes 5 bomb hits. A bigger xAK takes some strafing damage, and is hit with 2 bombs. I did enjoy this attack, at least. Sometimes a plan works.

Then I go after the airfield at Diamond Harbour, after observing many fewer planes there the past couple of turns. Well, they all returned in time for my raid. 45 Zero's and 55 Oscar's are on CAP. First just 9 B-26's come in, escorted by 8 Hurri's, 22 P-39's, and 15 P-40's. Most B-26's are shot down. No damage to the airfield.

Then 9 B-26's come in, with no escort. The result doesn't even have to be mentioned.


In the Solomons, I-22 lines up CV Lexington and gets a torpedo hit. But it's a dud! Wow, dodged a bullet, sort of speak.

A bunch of my transport task forces continue to unload at Lunga. 14 Val's attack with 22 Zero escorts. I have 18 F4F-4's on LR CAP. Some Zero's are downed, but they again successfully tie up the CAP. xAKL Argus and APD Waters take a single bomb hit each. xAK Colac is hit 5 times. Fortunately, all bombs are 60kg ones. Some troop casualties.

Then the Nell's and Betty's that have been attacking Tulagi's port are now on naval attack. 27 Nell's, 30 Betty's, and 27 Zero's go after a wide range of shipping at Lunga. Most concentrate on warships, mostly cruisers. This saves a lot of transports, I think. Just one torpedo hit on cruiser Canberra (damage SYS 24/FLOT 17). The two previous mentioned xAKL's and xAK's are then sunk with a torpedo hit each. The xAK was mostly loaded. 96 guns and 50 vehicles are lost.

All in all I'm not too unhappy with this result. I've unloaded lots of material and supply now. And most importantly, Lunga became a size 1 port and airfield this turn. I now have 50 P40E's on CAP.

US carriers now retire to Noumea. Transports continue to unload. 2 cruiser task forces leave Lunga for Luganville.

[jwolf]

Ironic that the Japanese suffered from a dud torpedo! That was a lucky break.

[apbarog]

18 Jul 42

All of the action is in the Solomons today. It becomes obvious that the enemy has committed several squadrons of Zero's here.

I had decided to continue unloading ships at Lunga, using 2 squadrons of P40E's as CAP, with 25 planes each.

First, 14 Val's arrive escorted by 13 Zero's. Only 24 P40's fly CAP, but do a pretty good job, downing most of the enemy. However, 7 Val's do drop their loads, and get 4 hits on an xAKL. The ship is unloading supply only.

The second strike has 18 Kate's escorted by 45 Zero's. I knew immediately that this was going to be a problem. Only 13 P40's fly CAP, and do very little. An xAK is hit 8 times, and APD Scley is hit 5 times. The Kate's drop 250kg bombs and do so very effectively.

Then 17 more Kate's arrive with 25 Zero's as escort. No CAP left. 2 bomb hits on another xAK, and one on APD Barker.

In the afternoon, 16 Betty's show up with 26 Zero's. 14 P40's fly CAP. About 8 Zero's are downed, but an xAKL takes a torpedo and sinks.

Then 13 Nell's arrive unescorted. 6 P40's intercept, downing a couple of bombers. An xAKL takes a torpedo.

Finally, 18 Kate's with 25 Zero's arrive, against just 4 P40's. A couple of Zero's are downed. A previously damaged xAK takes 3 bomb hits, and APD Barker takes another bomb.

For the day, I lost an APD, 2 xAK's, and 3xAKL's. No troops were lost, just supply.

The good news is that I raised the supply level at Lunga from 2,000 to 18,000. Everything that is still floating leaves Lunga now. I won't return until I have more CAP. I move a badly damaged APD from Lunga to Tulagi to disband. If it doesn't sink, I want it to show up at Tulagi and attract bombers there. I know that will finish off the ship, but I'd probably lose it at Lunga anyway, and I want construction to continue at Lunga more so that Tulagi.

There is an enemy ground unit at Munda now. It is most probably starting airfield construction. The Solomons is going to be a knock-down drag-out fight, I think.

US carriers made an exit from the area unobserved, again.

In the middle of the Indian Ocean, between Ceylon and Burma, I'm once again seeing a number of my subs lit up with detection levels.

Near Ambon, I see a couple of task forces. This area is quiet now. I have a feeling that this is at least part of KB on the way to Rabaul.

[jwolf]

ORIGINAL: apbarog
The Solomons is going to be a knock-down drag-out fight, I think.

Not that there's anything wrong with that ...

Good luck!

[jmalter]

ORIGINAL: apbarog
Jmalter, do I have to have the old air units on Wasp for the new USMC groups to appear, or can I just take them now?

These won't be new USMC groups, the Fighters are at-start units that were partially-filled, they flew from the CVs from early in the game to max out the embarked aircraft count. When the USN Fighters re-sized, they offloaded & took the USN F4F-3s after the CV boys upgraded to F4F-4s. They are carrier-trained now, & completing 2ndary training at Lahaina.

[apbarog]

20 Jul 42

No attacks in the Solomon's. I rested my CAP on Lunga and that worked out fine. CAP will be up for the next turn, but only about 25 or 30 fighters are undamaged. The burning APD that moved from Lunga to Tulagi made it there fine, but the damage is steadily increasing in port, so it's a goner. I scuttled it.

There is an enemy task force that has moved south from Rabaul. It is now just east of Rossel Island. I had thought that it was a bombardment force inbound, but now it looks more like a carrier force staying at long range from Lunga, or just cruisers probing to the south. Seems a bit risky since I just had 6 carriers in the area. But my carriers are now headed south to Auckland, so whatever this task force is, it has freedom of movement for now. A few US task forces flee from the area.

[BBfanboy]

He can probably tell from the decrease in DL on his subs that your carriers have left the area.

[apbarog]

That is true, but initially for the wrong reason. Each time I've run south with my carriers, I turned all of my search and ASW off in those task forces. Each time I got away completely unseen, despite all his subs, because I ran southwest, not southeast toward Luganville. So yes, he thinks I've gone, and he's right, but I was hoping that I would instantaneously disappear, without giving a direction of where I was going, and that worked. Maybe there is some doubt in his mind. I can hope. I need to grow my F4F-4 and SBD pools some before I return.

[apbarog]

21 Jul 42

In the Solomon's, there's no activity today. The enemy task force by Rossel Island disappeared. I had spotted in going southbound for two turns from Rabaul, but it wasn't moving maximum normal movement. My opponent mentioned that "Mr. Tanaka" is in my neighborhood now. Maybe that was "him", and it was a surface group. Don't know, and it doesn't matter. Not until these ships actually do something.

Batavia is bombed, and enemy troops approach. I see two stacks of over 10 units each on the way.

I've isolated a Japanese regiment in the jungle southwest of Ledo. I believe that transports are dropping supplies to it. An enemy fighter sweep appeared over this hex too. And the Indian unit that is working on closing the last hexside is being bombed. I'm not going to waste precious fighters here. The enemy can't move reinforcements fast enough here to make any difference.

At Calcutta, I do an artillery attack to see what enemy units are still here. There are still 3 infantry divisions and the same artillery and engineers that have been here all along.

QUESTION:

I have 2 coastal bases in China that will be lost soon. A ton of resources is in each base. Pakhoi has over 439,000 and Kwangchowaa has over 250,000. These are huge stockpiles. I'd like these resources to be drawn to the interior of China so that the enemy doesn't capture them all.

Is there anything I can do? Will moving all of my troops out of the base help?